The Wreck of the Ship Auguste

With the Fall of Quebec in 1759 and surrender of Montreal in 1760, French soldiers and officers were obliged to return to France. Auguste, a French ship captured by the British, was hired to provide deportees passage across the Atlantic. Tragically, the ship ran aground at Aspy Bay in northern Cape Breton during a fierce November gale in 1761. Of the 121 passengers and crew, only seven survived.

This coin, recovered by archaeologists in 2002, is a French Louis d’Or (“Gold Louis”) dated 1726. Look for the “A” below the coat of arms – the mark indicates the coin was minted in Paris. Its last owner, maybe a wealthy French officer, never got the chance to spend it.